Fallback
by omegafax
Summary: The Forerunners needed a fallback, so they made more Halos, more powerful than before.  Now, Cortana has found out about this.  45 years after Halo 3
1. Alex and John's Ring

Omega & Fax

Chapter One - _Dust and Echoes._

_2593  
_

_ At 100 meters, he could cut a Jackal (Kig-Yar) in half, at a 1000, he could put a .50 Cal into a Drone's cerebrum. At 2000 Meters he could put down a whole Brute Patrol before the ape-like creatures could process that they were not the hunters, but were the hunted and running would only cause them to die tired. _

Yes, by all standards SPARTAN III O958-Alex was a good shot. He had been taught by CPO Mendez. The man was old, but could still hit a fly at 500 meters.

He considered using his God-given talent of marksmanship to save the squad of marines that were being decimated by a Chieftain-class brute by the name of Rangor-Bae. He carried the standard Covenant anti-vehicle threat, a fuel-rod gun. The Chieftain had used it so effectively against the soldiers in battle group Whiskey, 597th battalion, 31st squad, it seemed like it was meant to tear men limb from limb. But Alex's orders were to report about the Chieftain.

No more, no less.

So he cleaned the SRS99AM (Sniper Rifle), like he always did on reconnaissance missions. Recon causes most soliders to be relaxed, but being jumped by a squad of Brute Chieftains on their first recon run does not allow one to be relaxed on recon.

So he clicked the button on the side of the scope, right as it focused on the Brute Chieftain roaring with victory. So then he wrote down how it behaved around it's allies, enemies, and it's patterns of warfare, things like that onto a sheet of Tangoglass. It illuminated his face as he dragged the document that he had just written into a UNSC database under millions of firewalls.

Tangoglasses are a thin sheet of glass attached to a 6" by 2" solar panel. When you touch the illuminated screen, (LED) whatever you touch can be moved at your will. So, when you type up a document, (simply selecting "UNSC Office" on the Desktop for approximately two seconds) you can save it, then drag it into the database.

The Spartan selected "Shut Down" for five seconds, slid it into his leg-strap, gripped his sniper firmly, then - after hesitating - turned around and sniped the Brute as it was doing it's victory snarl.

"Shit on that, Prophet of Faith," Alex turned around with a sense of dread. He thought of Master Chief, and how much they needed him right now. He was the one that the Spartan Generals always preached.

They always said that he would come back.

_Where are you, Chief?

* * *

_

_2598_

John-117 sat down as he tried to comprehend what had just happened. He took off his helmet after taking a quick recon, and scratched his forehead, and the rubbed the back of his bald head.

His orders were to infiltrate a facility, the Falgat Facility, located on a ring-world, a new one, that Cortana had just discovered, and had woken him up from his cryotank. But the Falgat Facility turned out to be something else... Something round, which if just at the tip, can be easily mistaken for this facility.

Somehow, Cortana had fixed the ship to follow her speed commands, and she could steer it wherever she wanted to. He had no idea how she did it, but it was Cortana. Must he say more.

"Dammit Cortana, it gets a little itchy under here," he slurred as he arose from the frozen depths of the tank. He never acted like this, but he was cranky, and he was nervous, because he thought they would never get out of this Black hell-hole they call space. "What do you need?"

"Good morning to you too," she answered, smiling. I have an important thing to show you Chief."

"I've been dreaming of covenant gore, and I want more of it. I hope this task involves some bloody covenant ass-kicking."

"Sort of... I don't know. I have found something in my radar, which means it's within 100 miles. It's in the shape of the ring, Chief. The Forerunners made seven rings, but I'm starting to think otherwise. You see, they needed a fallback the rings failed at destroying the flood, they would need to make another ring, maybe two, that were so powerful that they needed to be kept in secret from the rest of the species. But that's just my theory, but the Forerunners I know would have another plan, and the covenant aren't defeated, they're regrouping, you know, they have to be. The Prophets had to have had a fallback plan too... another Prophet maybe?

"But if the covenant race were re-stocked and prepared, then they would be looking for more Forerunner structures. And with the Elites, they're defenseless without an access supply of Brutes, which I doubt they have. So they would probably be on the search for new allies, strong, dependable allies that believe in the cause. This would have taken them a long time, but a long time has passed since you narrowly escaped that Ring. According to my Earth clock, it has been about... forty-five years."

_Shit_, Master Chief thought. _They must think I'm dead_.

"Do you think that the UNSC knows?"

"No, I don't really think so, and I know that Earth is pretty close, because when you first slept, I estimated where Earth was, and tried to triangulate it, and almost fifty years later, I think we're almost there."

Master Chief rubbed his forehead. "I never told you this, but I made him a promise to Johnson. He asked me once; 'Chief, if I ever die, which... hell I'm forty-seven and I think I do pretty well kickin' some good old Covie ass... but if so, you better promise me that you kill every single on of those sons a bitches.'

"You know that I always fulfill my promises, Cortana. I want to complete this one until I'm holding the last Brute head in my hands. I told him I'd castrate every last of 'em."

"Chief, I know you'll do it, but the Covenant is unreachable at the moment. I don't even know if they covenant even know about this ring, but if it's this close to Earth, I think that maybe we should try and land on Earth, since - shit! I think I see it right now! I'm going to increase speed until we get there... but anyway, we have to warn the UNSC... if there's still a UNSC."

"Damn, Cortana, this is some deep shit Earth is in, if that's actually a ring."

"I know, but we haven't much choice, Chief."

So, John went back into his cryo-sleep, and the marvelous AI zipped through her database, one final time. The approaching planet was in fact Earth. When she caught sight of Earth through the camera outside of the ship, she turned of John's cryotank.

Ten minutes later, they entered the exosphere.

So here he sat, evaluating what the hell was going on, eating some of the disgusting, fifty year olf space food. He thought of his mother too, he had also dreamed of her. He dreamed to when they went into fields with jars and caught fireflies. The fireflies turned into grunts and shot his mother with a plasma rifle.

He would have woken up screaming, but in cryo-sleep, you will never wake up. So instead, he held his mother as she bled out, and watched the life go out of her eyes.

A good dream turned bad.

Ever since he'd found out about all of the Spartans were kidnapped, he felt like stabbing a combat knife up her ass.

But alas, he didn't.

Instead, he went back to his living quarters, and picked up that combat knife, and held it to his wrist, then to his neck. He wanted to end it.

But I have so much to live for, he thought. I could save the world. He always kept that in mind.

Always.

He thought about the first time he had been advised to killed a grunt. They had brought a couple of them as prisoners.

I held up my Battle Rifle with a 4x Scope, and aimed it straight at it's head. "No!" It screamed. "T'nod llik em!" Don't kill me!

He coudn't. He was too squeamish back then. He had been whipped twice for not killing it. He could kill it now. He also dreamed about how he was never aloud to have a relationship with another girl. When he was thirteen, up to a couple years before they went through the change, rumors circulated about people losing their virginity.

He knew that he would never get that over with if he didn't before the change, and after that, he couldn't possibly do it, since they were always on a mission. He consulted his girlfriend - Elexa 367 - about it.

She agreed. So they went into the closet, so no one could find them.

He had dreamed about other things, but he didn't know why he had this particular dream. But forty-five years of dreaming? He had a ton of them. But this one had stuck out to him for some reason.

He snapped out of thought as he felt a huge vibration. He realized that Cortana was landing the frigate. He looked out and saw the thing he missed most.

The UNSC logo.

* * *

_2598:_ Alex was a Major now, assigned to SPARTAN Gamma team...[TRANSMISSION RECIEVED]... [EYES ONLY ONI BETA-CLEARANCE]... [DOWNLOADING]...

Gamma 1: Luis D459

Armor: Grey Mjolnir Mrk. VI

Armament: MA5B, M90CAS, Covenant plasma wrist blades.

Gamma 2: Kelly D957

Armor: Purple Scout helmet, FJ/Para shoulders, HP/HALO chestpiece.

Armament: SRS99AM, Suppressed M6B handgun, Standard Issue combat knife.

Gamma 3: Andrew D860

Armor: Black JFO helmet, ODST shoulder pauldrons, Collar/Grenadier chestpiece.

Armament: M19SSM Anti-Vehicular Man-Portable Rocket Launcher, Suppressed M7 Caseless submachine-gun, Standard Issue Combat Knife

Gamma 4: Alex O598

Armor: Orange GUNGNIR armor system.

Armament: M6GNL, MA5B, Standard Combat Knife.

Gamma 5: Christina O117

Armor: Olive Drab Mrk. V

Armament: Designated Marksman Rifle(DMR), Suppressed M7 Caseless submachine-gun, Standard Issue Combat Knife.

Gamma 6: Justin A411

Armor: Red E.V.A. Helmet, Commando Shoulders, Tactical/Patrol Chestpiece.

Armament: M90CAS, 2 M6B Handguns, Standard Issue Combat Knife.

[End Transmission]

* * *

As Master Chief glanced outside the frigate - landed on a UNSC base - he saw something that he had thought he would never see again.

A squad of Spartans.


	2. Revelations

Omega And Fax

"Fallback"

Chapter 2: Revelations

Gamma stood, mouths agape, staring at the UNSC frigate that had just titanium alloy was rusted and pitted from years of abuse. What surprised the Spartans the most was the design. This frigate design was from the Covenant invasion of Earth. That made it almost 50 years old. It must have been MIA, like the UNSC Spirit of Fire that had returned 5 years prior.

All except Alex, who shrugged it off. It was probably just some stupid Spartan who wrecked a ship. So he went on with his daily work, writing notes on proper exercise routines, performing them, then going back to his quarters. He thought about how the Spartans had been advised to mate, since they had to stop kidnapping. The human population was going down. Fast.

He thought about how sick it is to bring a child into the world, just to send it into combat. How sick is that?

But ever since he was fifteen he had felt a longing, but he had never been allowed. Now, they were advised to, and he didn't want to do it.

But before he could get too deep into thought, he fell asleep.

* * *

John got up of the cold, wet metal floor. He grabbed an Assault Rifle from the weapons locker, kicking the rusted bolt open. He loaded in one of

the magazines.

"Cortana, what's the fastest route off this piece of shit?"

"Walk down the halway on your left all the way." She flickered. Cortana was 52 years old. If she wasn't MIA, she would be the oldest AI known to man-kind.

John flowed out of the ship. During the trek he polarized his visor. Even with his visor that dark, he would be blinded when he caught the smallest ray of light. He stumbled to the door, sliding it open. First, he saw pure white light. Then, when his vision returned, he saw 200 tons of lead aimed at him. A few seconds later, he heard the clicking of hundreds of safeties of rifles. A man walked out to greet him. He was a Spartan, dressed in a smaller gray variation of his armor.

"Jesus Christ," the Spartan said. "Well if it isn't our night in shinin' armor."

"I have an AI on the ship," he piped. "Her names Cortana. If you drop, it'll be you ass on stick."

The Spartan made a hand gesture, and every sniper dropped and Spartans filed into a maintenance building. "I thought I was the last Spartan," John said, anti-social, untrusting.

"No, Dr. Halsey made sure more Spartans made it off Reach, she wasn't stupid. For instance, we still have people like 764-Damien, 987-James, and 367-Elexa."

"How? I thought they died." He thought of Elexa, his first time, his final time. "Are they still alive?"

"Elexa is, and so is Damien. They are actually running the facility, husband and wife." He smiled, and Master Chief wanted not only to wipe it off his face, he wanted to shoot it off his face. His Assault Rifle felt very heavy on his back.

Instead, he contained his anger. "So, what now?"

"Elexa will come and escort you to your living quarters. She actually insisted upon it."

"Okay..." Master Chief looked behind the gray Spartan, and saw a flicker of blond hair.

"Louis, I'll take it from here," she yammered there it went.

On the silent ride to his quarters, he fumbled every once and a while, and looked at her from time to time. Finally, after Elexa stopped at a door, he said, "How?"

"Spartans don't die, John," she said. There was a long silence. Finally she stammered, "Where the hell were you, you son of a bitch."

Her eyes were dark with storming waters and deep chasms.

"Sleeping, dreaming."

"I, I was lost without you John. Damien was my comfort, while you were gone. I kept telling myself to forget, but I can't. Just answer one question for me, you owe me that."

"I owe you peace, I owe you love, and I owe you a question, but most of all I owe you one thing. Me. You're right, I am a douche for leaving you for so long, but I couldn't help it." He paused, "What's your question?"

"Do you still love me, John?"

"Yes, very much so."

"Me too." Then, she was gone already, sprinting down the hallway before he could even react.

Yes, even the Chief has lady problems.

* * *

Alex woke with a very familiar face looking at him, with a cigar in one hand, with a Magnum in the other.

"Johnson, what are you doing here?" he demanded to the Sergeant groggily.

"Chief's here," Johnson answered. "And I haven't been notified. Why?"

"Chief?" Alex questioned, drunk with sleep.

"Master Chief. Kick-ass, Covie-killing guy with an AR? You know him, ho could you not?"

"What? How?" He bolted upright, and stood up with only his boxers on.

"I don't know, I haven't been notified, why does it feel like I'm repeating myself?" Alex quickly got a shirt on and said that he was going to go ask Elexa why Johnson hadn't been notified.

* * *

Elexa sat in her apartment-sized office with brilliant Forerunner-like architecture. It was a circular room, with Greek-themed pillars going up to the ceiling hundred of feet above. In front of her sat a large slab of concrete, twisted and twisted until it looked like an ice cream cone, then it was dipped in silver.

The wall had engravings by the greatest artist of her time, which told the tragic stories of the rings. Now, that cycle was about to be done all over again.

Cortana flickered, and the purplish glowing hologram returned again. "Wonderful room," Cortana piped with a smile. Nice artwork too - ooh! I remember that!"

The door buzzed, and echoed around the concave room. "Who is it?" she quizzed, and enjoyed hearing her voice three seconds later bounce of the circumference of the room.

"It's Alex."


End file.
